ST. ROBERT, Mo. (April 28, 2009) — Three people face numerous charges in connection with an early Saturday morning shooting north of St. Robert, and all are being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

The primary assailant, according to Sheriff J.B. King, was Rick Edward Griffith, 38, who lives on a road off Highway 28 north of St. Robert that has a Dixon address. King said deputies responded to a shooting at 3:53 a.m. on the 14000 block of Happy Drive, which is north of Exit 163 on Highway 28, and found a man laying on the front porch of a residence who “told them he had been shot and identified his assailant by name.” The victim, Jonathan Carr, 24, of Waynesville, was transported by Pulaski County Ambulance District personnel to Phelps County Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Court records show that Griffith pleaded innocent Monday morning before Associate Circuit Judge Colin Long to a Class A felony charge of first-degree assault, an unclassified felony charge of armed criminal action, a Class B felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon and a class D felony charge of hindering prosecution accusing him of shooting Carr from a motor vehicle and subsequently threatening bodily harm to a witness, warning that “snitches end up in ditches.” Long scheduled the case for a meeting with attorneys on May 5, set his bond at $100,000 cash-only, and ordered him to personally appear.

While available from court records, King did not publicly announce the names of two people who face Class A felony charges of first-degree assault for acting in concert with another in connection with the incident, one of whom also faces a Class D felony charges of hindering prosecution by retrieving a spent shell and flushing it down the toilet. Both people also pleaded innocent.

All three will go before Long again on May 5 to meet with their attorneys.

Deputies had a wild morning on Saturday hunting down the assailants, with a call coming in at 3:55 a.m. that somebody with a gun was pounding on a neighbor’s door. Sheriff’s dispatchers told the caller to stay inside and lock her door. Pulaski County 911 dispatchers reported at 4:01 a.m. that the gunman was somewhere on Host Drive and at 4:02 a.m. reported that the victim had been shot in the arm.

A deputy arrived at 4:07 a.m. and firefighters arrived at 4:09 a.m. but waited for backup, firefighters and ambulance crews were admitted to the area after deputies determined the area was safe at 4:19 a.m. and ambulance crews arrived to help; by the time the victim was transported at 4:29 a.m., deputies had determined the incident was not a self-inflicted wound and hunted for the assailant. Deputies investigated the incident at the scene until 6:28 a.m., and continued their investigation later in the day with additional accusations involving possible additional victims.

Class A felonies are the most serious type of felonies under Missouri law short of murder, and can lead to prison sentences of 10 to 30 years.